Biography
American pianist Dana Brown is highly regarded for both his solo and collaborative performances. As a pianist, he has been heard many times on 98.7 WFMT Radio as a collaborator and soloist, in addition to performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, Light Opera Works, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Chicago Humanities Festival and The Grant Park Music Festival. A Spotify artist, his 2021 recording Were I With Thee with Michelle Areyzaga, soprano, garnered excellent reviews. His other recordings include Haydn’s Schottische and Walisische Lieder with Stephen C Edwards, tenor (Lexicon Classics) and Human to Human with Fourth Coast Ensemble, as well as Lifescapes with soprano Rae-Myra Hilliard.
He supports young singers through his work at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he is Associate Professor of Opera and Vocal Coaching. He has musically directed over fifty operas at Roosevelt University, most recently King Arthur/Henry Purcell, Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters/Ned Rorem, and Riders to the Sea/Ralph Vaughan Williams. He is also on the artist faculty at Chicago’s New Music School.
Brown is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Chicago’s Fourth Coast Ensemble, Chicago’s professional vocal quartet, with whom he performs regularly. With the quartet, he premiered Wayland Rogers’ song cycle I-Thou and Andrea Clearfield’s peace cantata A Brush With Our Time. Both works were recorded for the CD: “Human to Human”).
For seven summers, he was the Co-Artistic Director of a mind-body-voice program for emerging young talent, the UpNorth Vocal Institute (UNVI) in Boyne, Michigan. A nationally prominent vocal coach, he has coached at the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he also played lessons and masterclasses of Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, Renée Fleming and Sir Andrew Davis. He has also coached at Northwestern University, the Intermezzo Young Artists Program, the Opera and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy, and the Taos Opera Institute. He was the coach for the 2008-2011 seasons of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Wisconsin District Support Our Singers Program. He has given masterclasses at Arizona State University, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, the University of North Texas, Northwestern University, Saint Xavier University, the University of Chicago, North Park University, and UpNorth Vocal Institute.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, he studied with renowned pianist Martin Katz. He also studied with Mary Sauer, the former principal pianist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and is in the process of writing a book about her teaching.
Abbreviated Biography
American pianist Dana Brown is an Associate Professor of Opera and Vocal Coaching at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. As a pianist, he has been heard many times on 98.7 WFMT Radio, in addition to performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center the Chicago Humanities Festival and the Grant Park Music Festival.
Dana Brown is a Spotify Artist, and his recent recording with Michelle Areyzaga, soprano, Were I With Thee, garnered excellent reviews: “Pianist Dana Brown is Areyzaga’s equal partner in every way. …these are thickly textured piano parts that a less accomplished pianist might turn to meaningless mush. Brown dispatches them with clarity and precision, yet also wrings every ounce of beauty from them” — Greg Berg, NATS Journal of Singing, May/June 2022.
Mr. Brown is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of Chicago’s Fourth Coast Ensemble, a professional vocal quartet. With Fourth Coast, he has premiered and recorded two new works for vocal quartet: Wayland Rogers’ I-Thou and Andrea Clearfield’s peace cantata A Brush With Our Time; both works were recorded on the CD Human to Human.
He is on the artist faculty at Chicago’s New Music School. And, his upcoming solo recital in spring 2024 is called “Soundscapes”, an exploration of short pieces by a wide array of composers.